In today’s post: 35 hacks for road trips with kids! How to prepare, how to stay organized, and how to keep kids occupied, plus the best snack ideas and ways to encourage good behavior in the car.
Best Road Trip Ideas for Kids
Once again, it’s road trip season. Honestly, I used to think people who packed up a bunch of kids and drove for fifteen hours to a faraway destination were completely, certifiably insane. There are times when fifteen minutes in the car with kids who won’t stop bugging each other is almost more than I can handle. However, I’ve realized that with the right preparation, family road trips can be rather less miserable than expected – maybe even fun.
All sorts of smart people have posted their favorite tips for road trips with kids online, and I’ve sorted through to find the best ones (and thrown in a few of my own). From preparing the car and organizing your supplies to packing snacks and prepping activities, this post has you covered. You’ll find links to plenty of ideas to make your road trip with kids a little less horrible and a lot more fun.
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Road trip with kids: Prep + Get Organized
Road trip with kids: How to keep kids occupied
This is the most important part, right? I’m totally ok with kids using electronics on road trips, but mine do tend to turn into monsters if they stay plugged in for 20 hours straight, so I try to make sure they take breaks from video games and movies. Here are some great non-electronic activities for road trips with kids:
Road Trip Kit Ideas
Road Trip Printables
Best Activity Toys for Road Trips
Road Trip Snack ideas
Ways to promote good behavior
If there’s anything out there that will convince my kids not to poke each other while we’re on a road trip, I’m willing to give it a try!
Suzanne Holt says
Thanks for all of these great suggestions! Pinned to my “Traveling with Kids” board.
Gwen says
We’ve gone on long road trips every year since 2010. The boys are now 8&6 and do wonderfully in the car. We listen to lots of music (Christmas in July is great!), read lots of books, play games. I used to pack toys in ziplock bags, I got soft lap trays made for the car and the boys would play w their Legos etc. we’ve listened to some books on cd (Little House in ththe Big Woods is still a favorite) but we’ll have to do more this summer.
Jordan says
Where did you find those individual packages of pickles and dips? Those are adorable and would be perfect for my trip this week!
April says
I love this list. My 3 children and I are driving from Nashville, TN to Los Angeles in April and then up to Vegas on the way home. It’s going to be a long month.
izzy says
Please forgive me if this has been mentioned already in the comments, but I believe the word you were looking for was “desert”, not “dessert”. When I read the line about being stranded in the “dessert” without water, I just had to chuckle because I had an image of a family stuck in ice cream (and I questioned if that would even be a bad thing lol).
Anyway, the article will hopefully help us on our first family road trip!!